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Look at that picture! That wonderful image has been splashed all over Facebook, Twitter and space news sites for the past hour, accompanying the ESA press release we’ve all been waiting for…

PHILAE HAS WOKEN UP!!!!!

This is just the best news for ages, at least for followers of ESA’s ROSETTA mission. For the past 6 months, ever since little Philae landed on Comet 67P… er, several times… and then fell silent shortly after (I still remember sitting here at my laptop on that awful night, feeling my heart sink through the floor as Philae’s power levels dropped off a cliff…) we’ve been hoping against hope that the lander would wake up from its hibernation, and it has! This means that Philae can resume doing science on the surface of the comet – taking measurements, studying its surroundings, and maybe even taking and sending back new photos too! And the icing on the cake is that this is happening while the comet itself is really starting to wake up as it screams in towards its closest encounter with the Sun, and things are getting beyond exciting out there. Oh, the pictures we might see now…🙂

Ok, take a deep breath…. So… what a morning, and what a fantastic time for anyone interested in astronomy and space exploration! New Horizons is closing in on Pluto… DAWN is taking spectacular images of Ceres… and now Philae has woken up! Huge congratulations to everyone on the ROSETTA team, who must be feeling absolutely fanTASTIC at the moment!

HEY! Not ignoring anyone. Just very busy and don’t generally reply to comments as they come in, I have to catch up, ok? Try writing a blog like this for many years and you’ll realise how much hard work it is keeping on top of it.